ASSUMING NORMAL
Before I start, let me just say that this is not an original thought. It has been expressed before by others. I bring it up to express my surprise. I should have known but was blinded by my normal routine. It is amazing what we take for granted, what is assumed to be a normal life. Although moving a trailer 300 miles down the road is about as easy a move as you can make ( other than moving within the same town ) it still entails planning and thought. I am desperately trying to duplicate all functions ( normal daily living off grid which is a lot different than disaster planning with duplicates ) and foresee possible problems. My biggest concern is winter living.
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My normal winter heat was a oil filled radiator running 600-900 watts. I paid $60 a month ( 11.5 cents a kilowatt hour ) in mild cold and $80 a month in bitter cold ( relative to this region ) to stay alive. When it got down to zero it was far from comfortable in the trailer but it kept us alive. Now I have to go to propane and solar. I hate to be dependant on propane, what with petroleum prices rising and all, but then that leads us into the worry about the land. I am financing the land and if I lose the job I fall back to the other land farther from town. If I construct a dug-out for winter living I lose that investment. So for now I stay trailer squatting rather than in a permanent dwelling. The land was only bought to be close to a job so it is almost viewed as a disposable expense. A better version of trailer park rent.
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But here is my point. I am freaking out about stocking up for winter. Before, I was dependant on the electric company for heat ( I had a two week supply of propane for emergencies ). But it was pay-as-you-go and I gave it little thought. Well, now I have to pre-plan the whole winter and I’m stressed. Silly, right? With a hundred gallons of propane I’m set for heating all winter, yet I’m worried. Snowed in, I can’t get more so I’m wanting to stockpile all I need. Last winter, with electric, if it got too cold I turned up the heat. Next winter, with a set amount of gas, what is bought now must suffice. I know there is the propane company bulk tank option. And I will look into that. But worse case I use my own small refillable tanks. I’m moving to a more disaster resistant heating method ( wood is not yet a viable option unless I install a stove in the trailer which I’m not so sure about ) but because it must be planned for in advance it seems more troublesome than being grid dependant.
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Even after all these years of self induced paranoia I must still combat sheeple assumptions ground into me since childhood. I know some of you view me as a deity, so let this be a lesson to you. Even one so near perfection as myself must continually strive to get this preparedness thing down correctly.
END
A heads up for everyone. I was toying with the idea of pre-posting articles before I moved. But I am simply too busy ( mostly busy worrying ) to write up enough ahead of time for daily posting. I don’t want to leave you hanging for two weeks, so I did the next best thing and pre-posted Sunday articles. This Wednesday will be my last daily post until I can get set up at the Elko Compound. From that day forward there will only be Sunday posts. And I cheated and reprinted old articles from 5-7 years ago ( taken from the Bison Newsletter book available at www.bisonpress.com ). I hope that I can get somewhat back to normal before the end of this month. So please stay tuned.
14 comments:
Good post, Jim, and straight from your experience. This stuff ain't easy. I am trying to be grateful each day for my "Normal" life as I know it's not going to last forever. Having lived without the grid for over a year (a few years back), I know it's not easy. But I will say this: it's more of a "mind" thing than anything else. But it does take time to get use to it. As Kermit the Frog would say, it ain't easy being green.
roll on Jim. Great post, we will read your posts whether one a day or one a month. Good luck with everything mate.
http://tinyurl.com/6atrus
in Korea the kitchen is lower than the rest of the house. Flue from kitchen stove runs under floor to chimney at far end of house. The warm floor warms you.
Might you place your trailer over a trench covered with sheets of tin with firebox (maybe a 55 gal drum) at one end and chimney at the other?
Install skirting. Place bales or straw, or perhaps just pile dirt
by the trailer.
I removed ammo, and placed meat can on two enbloc clips on Sterno in steel helmet between my feet and luxuriated in the rising warmth as my ration heated. The Hilton it wasn't but it was the best I could do at the time.
Is part of the problem the inefficiency of the trailer? My understanding of trailers is that they're built for infrequent summer use.
Thats a good article Vlad - thanks for posting it. I haven't read that advice before.
I figured that heating rocks (not from water course submerged area) in the fire and bringing inside would be good enough for small spaces in the winter. The way I see it, the area that REALLY requires comfortable air is the sleeping area - areas just occupied can be used while dressed up or down.
Reference the foam cushion 'sleeping huts' detailed by Tom Brown in living in ice storm homes that are without utilities - I think a lot of Far North locations will require very small spaces that require little heat for long term living.
You can put a wood stove in the trailer. I just got done reading "Travel Trailer Homesteading Under $5000" by Brian Kelling, and he did just that. Basically, he laid 2 inch thick cinder blocks on the floor, and stacked them 2 feet up the wall where he placed his stove (in a spot that he removed part of a built in couch). He then piped the flue out a nearby window. He replaced the pane of glass with sheetmetal, one piece inside and one outside, then ran the flue through that. He lived in Colorado, and said he was more than comfortable up to -30 degrees, and even had to open the roof vents at times to "dump" some heat. That's the route I'd go if I were you!
Good luck with your move, Jim. Congrats on escaping the rat race!
- ~Jim Rawles~
The idea of the Tom Brown indoor "sleeping hut" is a good one. It's kind of the old idea of a 4 poster bed-canopy-cover where you sleep (also prevents debris (like cats and dogs) from falling through your thatched roof on top of your sleeping area). The reindeer people of Siberia have big tents (like tipis,primitive yurts)which are quite cold inside but they sleep within small reindeer skin huts within the tents that are heated by small tallow candles/lamps. Said to be quite warm by Europeans who slept in them.
Under the trailer, bury a chunk of steel culvert pipe, it helps if you are on a rise and one pipe end is open so you can weld a door on it, the other end you have a flu set up for smoke to escape, above the trailer if possible. skirt the trailer and the heat will rise keeping your tootsies warmer than the outside world a bit which in turn helps your mind say it is warm enough in ther and comfortable at say 60F ambient as opposed to 90F witha 30-40F floor. een then you still have to get outside to build a fire daily, though thermal mass of the surounding ground will help to keep it warmer... my uncle had one similer under a chicken house and said during the winter his pullets would sit on the floor rather than roost cause it was warm enough for them.... it au to work for a travel trailer. And yes you still have the problem with gathering enough fuel to make it work for you, but it might offset the propane requirements if the temps got unexpectedly low for awhile as can happen in the pre-ice age we are coming to.
It does get cold near Elko, and trailers do freeze up, most are not equipped to handle the cold weather. good luck while moving and setting back up, good luck in finding gainful employment enough to get the things you missed and thought you had covered once you get there! May the Almighty God hold you and yours in the palm of his hand while the move takes place and a wee bit after too.
William
Idaho
Jim, Everyone has given you some great advice. If once a week post is what we get we will take it.
Working on the moat...
Rook
If you are going to use propane go for the bulk tank.
One of you 20# cylinders will probably last a day or two.
We lived in a travel trailer when we built a house. Propane was running at least 3 20# per week for about $150 per month. Back in '96. Hate to see what it would cost now.
The gas company will probably make you take the wheels off though. And expect to have to pay $35-50 for a pressure test on your trailers gas system. Definitely cheaper than a funeral.
Wood heat is an option (I have a friend who did it) but you'll likely be forced to use a small stove, meaning it'll go cold in the middle of the night.
You could bury a 70'-80' run of 6 inch pipe (at least 4 feet down, remember a downward pointing "U" at the intake end) and insulate the stem that rises up to your trailer. You should get a constant flow of 64 degree air from that (every little bit helps and it's free once you've installed it). Side benefit of cool air in the Summer!
Solar thermal can be done really cheaply. Look on craigslist for sliding glass doors that folks are replacing. Build a 2x4 frame (with small screen vents at the lower sides for air intake) and put a black painted insulated panel behind it. Use insulated dryer hose to go from the panel to the trailer. Make sheet metal brackets to tack the top of it to the side of your place and set it at a 45 degree angle. 2 or 3 of these will give you more heat than you can use (during the day).
Regards,
Hawaiian K.
You could help insulate your trailer by stacking straw bales around it and over the top. Or you could get elaborate and build a straw-bale structure around it.
Building on Mama Squirrels idea above (good idea ma'am) . . .
For summer cooling, hang tires off sides and placed on roof of trailer and cover with tarps. That will provide about a 6" air ventilated air gap between tarp and trailer skin, which will also shade from direct sun heating. Will need to
be guyed pretty securely or flapping will drive you nutz - I used to spend nights with plastic cheapie tarp overhead on camping trips. Incessant wind caused me to think I was sleeping in a potato chip factory - too dang loud. Canvas is much more expensive, but much quieter.
Result of this should be a cooler trailer. Another upside - those tires can be used as storage areas, hidden out of casual eye contact.
Good luck on move - its a lot of work, moving your crap, but just think if you had to the move the stuff Mr. Rawles did - dang, now THATS work! :O)
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